Tata opens Gold Plus showroom in Vellore

VELLORE: Gold lovers in Vellore now have one more showroom to visit. The Tata Gold Plus showroom was inaugurated here on Sunday in the Hotel Khanna complex in Officers' Line by Vellore Institute of Technology Chancellor G. Viswanathan.

Briefing newspersons about the new showroom the 10th Gold Plus showroom in India and the ninth in Tamil Nadu L.R. Natarajan and S. Ramadoss, Vice-Presidents, Titan Industries, Hosur, said while the automobile, telecommunication and Information Technology sectors were making rapid strides, there were no developments in the jewellery industry.

This was attributable to the lack of standardisation in jewellery. The Tata's entered the gold business a few years ago with the objective of introducing standardisation in the manufacture and marketing of gold jewellery, catering not only for the elite but also to the urban, semi-urban and rural clientele.

"While the Tanishq showrooms are for the elite, the Gold Plus showrooms are for the semi-urban and rural customers. While the purity and quality of the jewellery in both categories of showrooms will be the same, the difference will be in the type of designs offered," said Mr. Natarajan.

He said that through the Gold Plus showrooms, they proposed to introduce a professional approach to gold marketing. While there was greater awareness about gold jewellery among customers in the metropolitan cities, it was low in the semi-urban and rural towns, who accounted for 70 per cent of the market. Titan Industries plans to add 25 Gold Plus showrooms every year, he said.

The Gold Plus showroom here has a carat meter, which allows customers to test the purity of either old gold jewels they exchange for new ones or that of new jewellery.